(Before returning to the Rhind Mathematical Payrus,let me post a piece on language that will shed lighton the place of mathematics)

scope and emblematic map of language(ideas from 1963 onward)

Language, basically, is the means of getting help,support and understanding from those we depend uponin one way or another, and every means of getting help,support and understanding may be called language,on whatever level of life it occurs ...

In my opinion, language is a basic feature of life,and may be considered the intelligence of life -using language we achieve more than we wouldachieve all on our own. Language allows us tomake more of the available energy, intelligenceand energy perhaps being related, or evenequivalents. Look out for intelligent solutionsand you can save energy, or make better useof the available amount of energy.

Human word language evolved with our tools andthe many things we fabricate and the more and moreartificial surroundings we live in. Satisfying our needsand fulfilling our wishes in an artificial world requiresthat we can explain our situation, evoke our conditions,describe our part and side of the world in order tojustify the satisfaction of our needs and fulfillmentof our wishes.

We describe the world in different ways, the ultimatepositions being mathematics based on the formula

a = a

and poetry based on the wider logic of art and lifeand nature as formulated by Goethe

all is equal, all unequal ...

Mathematics may be regarded as the logic of buildingand maintaining, while art provides the human measurein a technical world we inhabit and shape along ournature and needs and wishes and innate abilities.

If I were to propose an emblematic map of languageI'd mention a triangle whose corners are life and artand mathematics.